FOCUS

PAOLO DE MATTEIS: Piano del Cilentro 

Study of Ceres (Demeter) Driving a Chariot Drawn by Dragons
Pen, brown ink, and wash on traces of black chalk.
16.12 x 10.62 in. (415 x 269 mm).
Provenance:  Giancarlo Baroni, Florence
Bibliography:  Livio Pestilli, Paolo De Matteis, Neapolitan Painting and Cultural History in Baroque Europe, Farnham, Ashgate, 2013, p. 334, as Aurora Driving a Chariot Drawn by Dragon;
Laurie Marty de Cambiare, Dessins Napolitain, 1550-1800, Catalog for exhibition 25 Mars – 10 Avril 2014, pages 58 and 123 (English translation).

Poetry in Motion - Ovid: The Metamorphoses, Book V
Center for Helenic Studies, Harvard Univeristy - Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Translated by Gregory Nagy

Whether reading about Ceres, Proserpine, and Dis (Pluto) in Ovid’s Metamorphosis, Book 5, 385ff or about Demeter, Persephone, and Hades in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, we are inclined to think of this drawing as the renewal that comes from a joyful reunion between a worried, angst-ridden, angry desparate mother and her daughter, who had been heard crying out in agony.

Both versions describe a mother’s search, with a grief that can easily turn to anger and a single-mindeness that results in self neglect and the abandonment of her duties as goddess -- to make the earth fertile. Above the barren earth, day and night,  Demeter’s chariot is pulled by dragons, a symbol of vigilance, anticipating and reacting to perceived dangers and difficulties.  Ovid’s Metamorphoses 5:354 describes pine torches kindled in the craters of Mt. Aetna to light the “frosty dark.”  Both myths present an eventual discovery of facts: the father (Jupiter/Zeus) has offered the daughter to his brother (Dis (Pluto)/Hades – god of the underworld, who has taken her as his bride to reign there. A negotiation qualified by the daughter’s consumption of Pomegranite seeds seals her fate: in Metamorphoses, the mother/daughter reunion is 6 months of the year; in Homer, 9 months. During the months when Proserpine/Persephone reigns with her husband in the Underworld, the land is barren.  When she reunites with her mother, the land becomes fertile.  In this way the seasons are explained. Seasons, literally, as in time, regeneration in spring, planting seeds, harvest, and winter. Our drawing is an expression of the mother/daughter reunion.

Metamorphosis, V 572: “Thus Arethusa made an end of speech. And presently the fertile goddess yoked two dragons to her chariot:  she curbed their mouths with bits.  They bore through the air, in her light car betwixt the earth and skies to the Tritonian Citadel and to Triptolemus to whom she furnished seed that he might scatter it in wasted lands, which after long neglect, again were given the plow.”

Instead of lighting the way through darkness, the torches now light the way for the redistribution of seed.  Winged creatures assist.  Cupids wave about bouquets.  One can imagine the goat to represent truth and Pan, wild nature.  Is the daughter beside them, looking up to the heavens. Is the drawing of a mountain, Aetna?  Sorrow, grief, and anger has been turned into joy.  Winter has become spring.  Hope.  The possibility for regeneration always present.

Donald and I were introduced to drawings from Naples in 2014, at Marty de Cambiaire Fine Arts.  Before then, our study of Italian drawings had focused on Venice, Bologna, Florence, and Rome, as it should.  Suddenly, the world of Naples was before us.  Many of the names were unfamiliar to us, but the drawings were powerful, expressive, and left a lasting memory.  Laurie Cambiare’s entry for this exhibition offers a brief biography of Paolo de Matteis:

“A pupil of Francesco Di Maria and then of Luca Giordano, Paolo De Matteis developed a style influenced by his masters but also by his time in Rome where he was imbued with the classicism of Carlo Maratta….

[The drawing of Ceres] probably dates to the period that follows his training with Giordano during which he produced several paintings so close to those of his master that it is difficult to distinquish them.  The same applies to their drawings, which were for a time confused;  the hand is indeed close to that of Giordano and proves, with its restrained and efficient line allied with brilliant distributed wash which gives the drawing all its light and volume, with successful mastery of drawing technique.  The dating to the 1690’s is also confirmed by a certain rococo inclination in the composition, which Giordano also follows at this time.”